Something Special

Conductive inks can be printed in-line on standard printing presses and a variety of substrates, making them ideal additions to the smart label converting process. Their immediate impact on the advancement of RFID is apparent.

"One immediate impact on converting is that the inlay/laminating process is greatly simplified," said Graham Battersby, president, Precisia LLC. "Instead of having to laminate a separate solid layer of metal into a tag structure, the antenna can be printed directly onto one side of the web. In the future, there may be opportunities for integrating the printing and converting steps even further. We've seen that different consumer products (such as liquids or those with metals in their packaging) may need different antenna designs to produce optimal RFID performance, so it's conceivable that, as more printers become familiar with conductive inks, they may be able to print the appropriate antenna directly onto the packaging material," he added.